One for All
by worldsapart
Summary: Lisa meets Anthony on her first day on the Hogwarts Express, and it's a complete disaster. Then come Terry and Michael. This is the story of how they make it through school, despite everything. How they make it together. Friendship, a bit of Lisa/Terry.


Lisa Turpin meets Anthony Goldstein on her first day at Hogwarts, on the Hogwarts Express, even, and it's a complete disaster. She wonders how she was supposed to know that the seat she'd chosen was already taken, as he hasn't at all marked it, but he insists he'd chosen that precise seat and would she please move? She suspects it's because of its proximity to the loo, because he _does_ look a little green, but that doesn't make having to move to another compartment any more pleasant. She's stuck between a large girl who smells funny and a dark-skinned boy who looks like he'd prefer eating mud to sitting next to the tiny blonde thing that Lisa is.

She wonders if maybe she should have begged her parents to let her go to school with her brother, who turned out not magical at all and gets to read lots of books and not have to worry about whether or not he's accidentally going to turn his best friend's favourite doll into a stick just because he's _tired_ of playing dolls and really just wants to go outside and climb trees.

But she loves Hogwarts the second she walks in the door, and she knows she could never choose to go anywhere else. The Great Hall is so _big_, and there are more kids crammed at the tables than she's ever seen in one place before, even her family reunions where Aunt Gilda alone has six. She gets sorted into Ravenclaw, which is not really a surprise, because her dad has always said this is where she'd end up. The boy from the train, whose name she marks in her memory, is sorted there as well, and she's not sure she's happy about that, especially as, when it's her turn to join the table, she has to sit right next to him.

"Oh, it's you then," he says to her once the Feast has started. "Lisa, wasn't it? Can you pass the potatoes?"

Lisa sort of stares at him for a moment, but then she grabs the dish and hands it to him, thinking he's very possibly the strangest boy she's ever met. Later she realises that maybe Ravenclaw is just a House full of strange people.

The girls in her dormitory are nice, but she can tell after just a few days that she won't fit in with them. She's a bit disappointed, really, because she's always wished she could get along with girls her age, that she could somehow figure out what she should say and do to keep them from teasing her. These girls don't tease her, and Mandy even says that Lisa's hair is pretty, but all she can do is sit awkwardly on her bed while they chatter away into the night about things that don't interest her at all, wondering what they'd do if she asked them about Quidditch.

It's not a conversation about Quidditch that helps her find her place, though. It's Exploding Snap, which in later years she thinks is rather appropriate, but that day she's only glad for finally feeling comfortable somewhere other than class or the library. There's a group of boys playing on one side of the common room, and Lisa keeps sneaking peeks at them, lowering her book below her nose and laughing a little each time one of them makes a false move and ends up with soot in his face. Anthony is one of the boys, but she doesn't care. He hasn't bothered her since that first day, and when he's sitting with the other two--Michael Corner and Terry Boot, she's learned from being in class with them--he actually looks like he's having fun rather than like he's got a rather large Beater's bat shoved some place uncomfortable.

He catches her looking at them, though, and Lisa feels her stomach sink in dread as the three boys lean in and start whispering. She tries not to watch, tries to tell herself it doesn't matter what they're saying about her, but she can't help it, and every few seconds one of them will glance in her direction, then turn back to the secretive conversation.

"Oi, you there! Turpin!" calls Michael, and Lisa's head snaps up from her book in surprise. "You know how to play Snap? Goldstein here needs a partner. Can't seem to win any on his own."

Anthony scowls at his friend, but when he glances at her, there's no glimpse of that expression she still remembers from the first day on the train. Lisa smiles tentatively as she joins them, but by the time they're off to dinner, she can't stop grinning. Terry and Michael have their arms slung around her shoulders, and Anthony walks next to them, trying not to laugh at their good-natured teasing of him and failing miserably.

This time Lisa passes the potatoes before Anthony can even ask. He still thinks she cheated in that last game, when she and Michael switched places, and he absolutely will not budge when she argues that she's sure Professor Flitwick said their essay was due on Wednesday, not Thursday, but he's smiling at her sometimes. Terry says she's the coolest girl he's ever met, including his older sister, who is a seventh year Hufflepuff and apparently very cool indeed.

Anthony actually agrees with this, and Lisa feels very content, because she knows she's found her best mate, even if she still thinks he's a prat, and two other friends besides.

*

Classes are never very difficult for her. Lisa thinks maybe Anthony resents her just a little bit for this, because, despite being one of the most intelligent people she knows, he has to work very hard for his grades. He doesn't like it when she reassures him, though, so she learns to simply nod seriously and look chastised when he's feeling particularly downtrodden about spending all weekend on an assignment and then receiving a barely passing grade when she threw hers together in a couple of hours on Friday night. She can't help it that those things come easily to her, and even though Michael and Terry constantly tell her to just ignore Anthony's grumpiness, she can't. She wishes she could make it easier for him.

Things aren't really all that easy any more, though, in or out of classes. Michael's got a girlfriend, and while Lisa thinks Ginny Weasley is nice enough--and she likes Quidditch, which is something Lisa can appreciate--she's all wrong for Michael. The other blokes don't see it, though, and for once it's not Anthony who argues the matter into the ground. Terry nearly bites her head off at an off-handed comment she makes about the couple, and Lisa has never, ever cried in front of them, but she almost does this time. He disappears for awhile after that, probably to drag Michael out of some broom cupboard so the two mates can go flying and blow off some steam, but Anthony stays behind with her.

He doesn't say anything, and neither does she, but they both know something has changed. She thinks he knows what that "something" is, but she's scared to ask, and he doesn't offer anything. Eventually, he goes to join the other two, and she's alone.

That night she _does_ cry. She's trying to be quiet, but Mandy must hear, because the other witch crawls onto Lisa's bed and smooths down her hair and says that it's okay, even though she has no idea what's wrong. Lisa doesn't even know what's wrong, and that only makes it worse.

The four of them try to pretend like everything's fine, and she helps them with their homework and laughs at Michael's terrible jokes just like before, but Lisa's left by herself more often than not these days, and it hurts more than she wants to admit. Classes aren't even really a solace now, because that Umbridge bitch is everywhere, and it's all Lisa can do to keep her mouth shut and stay out of trouble. She almost speaks up in class one day, almost tells the woman what she thinks of her, and it's only an imploring look from Anthony that stops her. Michael and Terry look concerned as well, and while she's so mad that she wants to start hexing furniture into tiny pieces, the weight that's settled on her feels a little bit lighter. She's begun to wonder if she's done something, if the way she always seems to be right about everything and her disapproval of Ginny has finally worn their friendship beyond repair, but now she has a tiny bit of hope.

It's because of that hope that, later that week, Lisa lies to Professor Flitwick about the boys' whereabouts. They aren't in the library, and she _knows_ they aren't in the library--or the common room or the Quidditch pitch or anywhere else she's checked--but she tells him anyway, because she doesn't know where they are. That Umbridge woman is standing over Flitwick, and Lisa's heard things about her, seen how students in her detentions have been treated, read her ridiculous decrees, and for the first time feels really scared. Other things have happened around them, even as far back as second year, when those Muggle-born students got hurt, but this is the first time it's been so close. And no matter how angry she gets at her mates sometimes, she desperately doesn't want to see them in trouble with Umbridge.

Her Head of House knows she's lying, she can tell, but he looks rather pleased at the answer all the same, awarding her with five House points for being so helpful.

"You're a good friend," he mumbles as soon as Umbridge begins to walk away. It's so quiet that Lisa almost doesn't catch it, but she does, and she wants to hug him for those words, because it's just what she needed to put two and two together.

All those rumours about Potter and a defense club...her friends have always scoffed at them, laughed openly at the ridiculousness of such a thing, but now she sees why, sees how carefully they've constructed their front. And it hurts that they haven't just _told_ her, that they couldn't trust her to keep that secret, or that they don't think she's capable to be involved herself, but _god_ she's so relieved that she's not even angry.

Well, maybe a little angry, because when Terry and Anthony stroll into the common room late that night--no doubt Michael's more carnally occupied--looking tired but completely unharmed, she punches Anthony in the stomach before either even has a chance to greet her. Terry starts to step between them, probably to tell her to that, whatever her problem, she's overreacting, but before he can, Lisa throws her arms around Anthony's neck and buries her head in his shoulder. He hesitates, but they're alone down there, the only three still up, and after a moment he puts his arms around her.

"You're a prat," she says without any real venom.

"I'm sorry," Anthony answers. It's the only time she can ever remember him apologising to her, or at least doing so directly. She wonders if he even knows why he's saying it, or if he just wants to make her feel better, but then his arms tighten and he adds softly, "I just don't want to see you hurt...but I think I've done that already, haven't I?"

Lisa can't answer, because she's trying too hard not to cry. She feels a hand on her shoulder and realises that Terry has moved up near them, and he's looking uncomfortable and maybe a little embarrassed, which is sort of strange, because Terry's usually the most likely of the blokes to come even close to talking about his feelings. When she turns to hug him, one of his hands strokes her hair almost absentmindedly, and she sighs a little, wanting to stay here with her mates forever and forget about the turmoil that has been this year so far.

"I won't tell anyone, I swear," she says when she pulls back, looking between them.

Because as much as they think they're protecting her, Lisa is really the one protecting _them_ now.

*

Lisa finds out Anthony's secret only a month into the first term of sixth year, only she doesn't think it's very much of a secret at all, because she already knows that he has a picture of Viktor Krum hidden away near the top of his school trunk, and it's not because he's much of a Quidditch fan. He's very nervous when he tells her, and she lets him get the whole thing out without interruption before telling him he's a prat for thinking she could possibly disapprove. He's her best mate, and really, it makes things a lot less complicated, because at least she never has to worry about him trying to seduce _her_.

This flusters him more than she thinks it should, but he's in an unusually good mood for the rest of the day after that, and doesn't even grouse when Lisa suggests they use a bit of their free time to get ahead on their Transfiguration assignment that's due the following week. He's evidently already told the others, and she wonders what's going on when Michael elbows Terry and nods toward where she and Anthony are sitting on the couch, but she decides not to ask, because Terry shakes his head and looks rather disgruntled. It's a good day, and she doesn't feel like pressing her luck.

There seem to be more good days this year than there were the last, and she doesn't try to hide the fact that this is mostly because her mates are actually _around_. They're different this year, but not necessarily in a bad way. Maybe they've all just gotten older, or maybe it's the toll of the times in which they're living. For one thing, they're all three quieter, even Michael, though the average person probably can't tell it from the way he's parading around the common room, cracking jokes and snogging Cho Chang out in the open where everyone can see them.

Lisa tries to keep her mouth shut where Cho is concerned. Cho's a Ravenclaw, and she plays a damn good game of Quidditch, and Lisa thinks she's nice, if a bit too emotional sometimes. Besides, Lisa's not stupid, and she saw how it riled her friends when she complained about Ginny, how Terry still watches out of the corner of his eye whenever Michael and his girlfriend are around, as if he's just waiting for Lisa to say something rude.

She wants to confront him about it sometimes, to yell at him for making her feel guilty when she hasn't even done anything, but a tiny part of her likes that he's looking at her, likes to imagine that it's for other reasons entirely. But months pass without a single bad word about Cho passing through her lips, though they've passed through her head more times than she count, and things with Terry start to seem more normal again. She lets herself ignore that other little voice, because she likes the peace they seem to have achieved.

"I know, you know," Anthony says one day, completely out of the blue. She's spent the last fifteen minutes marking up his Arithmancy homework and hardly even realises he's spoken until he adds, "I don't think he does, though."

"Know what?"

"That you like him. _Like_, like him," he says, and the expression on his face says that he really doesn't want to be talking about this at all, but for some reason he feels like he should.

Lisa gets it before he even has to say anything else, because she's learned to read him pretty well over the last six years, and her heart feels like it's fallen on the stone floor of the library.

"It doesn't matter," she says softly, though what she really means is that it _does_ matter, but she won't do anything about it. Anthony's warning her off, trying to keep her from screwing up their foursome and getting her heart broken all at the same time, and it's probably what she needs to hear, even if she doesn't like it. Even if it makes her heart feel a little broken already. She wants to say more, to reassure him that she understands, but all she can do is repeat herself. "It doesn't matter."

He doesn't believe her, but he lets her get away with that little lie, because he's her best mate, and because he's never exactly been the sensitive one of the bunch anyway. That's Terry's job, and since he obviously can't be involved in this conversation, Lisa goes back to Arithmancy and Anthony to doodling on the corner of her Transfiguration notes, pretending to study them. He knows he'll pass the test with her help, has been almost _easy_ when it comes to schoolwork since the previous year, but he still likes to give her a hard time when he can, and that makes her smile.

They'll be taking their NEWTs next year, and that makes it easier to focus on everything _but_ Terry, because she's already got her revision schedule laid out, and she's making some headway. She's not the sort to sit around and fawn over some boy, not like Mandy and Su, with their Witch Weekly and unbidden attempts to get Lisa to wear something a little girlier during the times when they aren't required uniforms. She's focused now, and sometimes she even manages to drag others into her study circle, and it feels a lot like the times before things got complicated.

But like most things in the last few years, that focus, that feeling of calm, doesn't last, because someone says the Dark Mark has been spotted above the school, and they're all running to the windows, but no one can see anything. Maybe it's true, and maybe it's not, but she can see that look in their eyes, sees how Anthony and Terry and Michael exchange looks with other housemates, and she knows they want to go find out for themselves.

Michael sticks his head out the door, and there's yelling--god, there's so much _yelling_--and somehow they still want to go. She can see the eagerness in their eyes, see that they want to help. In the end, she isn't sure why they _don't_ go, because as scared as she is for them, she knows they're brilliant wizards, knows that whatever side they're on will be better off with them there. But they stay, Michael and Terry on the couch on either side of her, one of her hands clasped in one each of theirs. Anthony stares at them, his jaw set the way it always gets when he's worried, and Lisa rests her head on Terry's shoulder, not caring if her best mate will have more advice for her when this is over and they're safe again.

When it _is_ all over, Dumbledore's gone, and they're definitely not safe, but at least she still has her friends. That's all that matters for the moment.

*

Lisa almost wishes she hadn't come back to school, with Snape running the school and the Carrows roaming unfettered, laying out their _discipline_ on anyone who puts a single toe of line, no matter how crooked that line might be. She's scared all the time now, and her daydreams have become the sort where she drags her mates off to some Muggle place on the other side of the world and waits for this bloody war to end. She knows it's cowardly, knows that she'd never do it even if she could, mostly because she knows that her boys--they're hardly boys any more, are they?--would never come with her.

They will do almost anything for her, but they wouldn't do that, and she both loves and hates them for it.

She's pretty lucky, because she's neither the most outspoken nor the quietest student in her classes, and that helps her keep mostly out of sight, out of trouble. Muggle Studies is the worst, but Lisa learns very quickly to keep her mouth shut, even when Alecto goes on about Squibs like Lisa's brother, because of the time Anthony covered for her and landed himself in detention instead of her. She begs him never to do it again, to let her pay for her own stupidity next time, but he refuses, and then Michael and Terry promptly step up and say they'll do the same.

They aren't the only ones covering, though. She's never taken the Cruciatus for one of them, but maybe she's helped them avoid it a few times. Dumbledore's Army is revived and active again, but she doesn't feel left out this time, doesn't begrudge them the time they spend without her. There's too much to be done, too many cuts to heal and nightmares to soothe, and she tries to keep herself busy, because at least when she's busy she's not worrying about them.

_Everyone_ is worried when they return from Christmas break and Luna's gone missing. Lisa doesn't know her well, has always, like most others, found her a bit odd, but she knows it's really bad. The blokes don't say so, exactly, but it's there behind the words they _do_ say. Luna's something of a leader in their group, strange as it seems, and it puts a strain on them. That goes double when Ginny doesn't come back from the Easter holiday, and Lisa thinks it's that strain that finally makes Michael slip up.

It's late in the school year, and some of the younger students are already almost excited about going home for the summer. Some are hopeful that things at the school will be different before they have to return, and others know their parents are planning to slip off with them if they can, like Lisa wanted to do at the beginning of the year. Lisa sits in her usual spot on the couch with Terry to her left pretending to work on his Arithmancy, and Anthony doing the same, only with his Transfiguration text, but Lisa knows they're really watching the door, just like she is. Michael's hours overdue getting back to the Tower, and even though it isn't unusual for the Carrows to get distracted in doling out their detentions, no one has ever been gone this long.

By evening Terry is practically frantic wanting to leave the common room, to _find_ some news of his best mate, but it's after curfew, and at least one other student has gone out and not come back in the last hour. Even Anthony doesn't want his friend to attempt it, and Lisa isn't relieved, because she's desperate for news, too, but at least she has one less person to worry about.

Parvati Patil finally shows up, stays only long enough to bring word, and it's not good. Michael's in the hospital wing, because he tried to sneak a first year out of detention, and Amycus Carrow caught him. Lisa wants to march straight there and hurt him herself for being so stupid, but Anthony and Terry have their arms around her, and they aren't letting her go anywhere. She's crying, and she hates it, because they've never had to watch her cry before, but she's also never seen either of them so shaken, and that's worse.

She isn't sure which one of them leads her upstairs, but soon she's curled up on Anthony's bed, staring at the wall while Anthony and Terry talk. Maybe she drifts off, she isn't sure, but either way she isn't paying attention to the conversation. When the numbness has faded a little, though, she notices it's gotten dark and that Anthony is softly snoring on the bed next to her, that at some point he's managed to get up enough of the covers to climb under them. She moves to go. She doesn't want to, doesn't want to be alone in her bed tonight, but it seems strange being the only one awake in the boys' dorm, like she's intruding, even though she was invited.

"Lisa?" calls Terry's voice, barely above a whisper.

Her eyes have started to adjust to the moonlit room, and now she sees that her other friend is still awake, is still lounged on his bed in much the same position she vaguely remembers from earlier in the evening. Lisa isn't even sure what time it is, but she knows it has to be late, and Terry doesn't look like he's slept. He scoots over a bit, and she crawls onto the bed next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. She threads her fingers through his, and his other hand strokes her hair. It's so familiar by now that she barely thinks about it.

"He's going to be okay," he says, and Lisa can't tell if he's trying to convince her or himself, but it feels good to hear the words aloud, somehow more real. "I'm sorry," he continues, and his hand pauses, rests on her head for a moment. "I've been a real prat about you and him, but I swear I won't interfere any more."

"What?" She lifts her head up, eyes searching his questioningly.

And that's when she realises she'd had it all backwards, and Anthony hadn't been warning her off Terry at all. Realises that he'd thought she fancied _Michael_, that they both had, with all her comments and complaints about Michael's girlfriends. She wants to scream, because it's so completely unfair for all of this to be unwinding now, when their mate spent the afternoon being tortured while they sat around doing homework. But a part of her still wants this, has never _stopped_ wanting it, and she's so afraid that if she doesn't take the chance now it might be gone forever, because _he_ could be gone forever. That fact is more clear to her than it's ever been.

Maybe Terry recognises the look in her eyes, feels that same sense of urgency, because he kisses her then, and it's even better than she's imagined. It's tentative at first, and when he pulls back, she can see he's worried that this wasn't the right move, that maybe he was wrong in his instincts. She can't let him think that, and so she pulls him close again, kisses him again. He smiles against her lips, and he's so gentle with her that it's amazing, but there's something fierce about it, too, something fiery that reassures her this is still her same mate, kissing her or not.

They don't get much sleep, but now it's less because of anxiety and more because of conversation and kisses and tentative touches that have the promise of turning into more whenever they're able.

Michael shows up in the early morning hours, just after dawn, looking very tired, but there's a slight smirk on his face, because he walks into the room just as she's gotten brave enough to slide her hand under Terry's shirt. Michael's not great, but he's _okay_, and not nearly as surprised as Anthony at this new development between his friends. There's hardly time for surprise, anyway, because their friend's story sheds an eerie light on their situation. It's _real_ now, as real as the barely-healed cuts on Michael's face and the pained expression on Anthony's face as he looks between his mates, wondering aloud what the hell they're going to do now.

They're living in hell, and Lisa knows it. But she can't help letting herself, just for a little while, enjoy the closeness of them, the way they're clinging to one another that morning like it's their last. Maybe it is, but she still feels like maybe she's one of the luckiest witches in the world, and thinks maybe they feel the same way about her.

*

She hugs them tightly as soon as they hear. There's been word that Harry's back, that there's going to be a revolution, and they're needed. Lisa wants to go with them, wants to help, but someone needs to stay behind and look after the younger ones, and so she's torn. She can tell they want her with them, too, that while they're fidgeting with anticipation of the coming battle, of finally putting an end to this war they've been fighting this year and so many before it, they still want to protect her, bodily if necessary.

That's why she decides to stay. She knows they are still those boys who refused to let her get detention with that Carrow bitch, even when she was stupid enough to provoke it, and _she_ refuses to let one of them take a curse for her now. They aren't really children any more, are they? The Death Eaters certainly won't stop with the Cruciatus with Potter in the mix.

"I love you," she says to each of them in turn, even Terry, and he knows that she doesn't mean it romantically, but she thinks someday she will, and he knows that, too. All three know her, know that she will do anything for them, and she thinks that somehow makes this parting easier, though her insides still feel like they're ripping apart.

Michael's the first to slip out of the Tower and into the school, but first he reminds her that she owes him that game of Exploding Snap when this is all over. If she's really good, he might even make it Strip Snap. He winks, and Lisa laughs a little, though she can see the tense way his mouth is set as he says it. The door closing behind him sounds far louder than it should, and she feels the distance almost immediately.

Terry doesn't kiss her goodbye, because he says that would be too much like admitting they might never see one another again. He brushes a hand across her cheek, and there's more meaning in his look than could ever be conveyed by a simple touch of the lips. But then she reaches for him all the same, throws her arms around his neck, and she can tell he doesn't really give a damn about superstititions either, because this kiss sure as hell isn't a _simple_ one. He leaves almost in a rush, and she's glad, because another two seconds and she might not have let him.

Anthony is the last to go, and when she pulls him into one last hug, he doesn't pull away or grumble at her like he might have any other time. Lisa lets out a long, shaky sigh, wanting to say something, anything, but there just don't seem to be words.

"Save me a seat on the ride home, yeah?" he says finally, still holding her tight against his chest.

"Maybe I'll just find one for myself, and you can have that one."

It's a joke, but there's no laughter left in her now. Padma's gone now, too, and Anthony really is the last one left, the last of the Ravenclaws who's going to charge into battle. There has to be more than this left to say, has to be some way she can sum up seven years of friendship in that one moment, but her mind keeps going back to that day on the train when she'd thought she'd be better off at a Muggle school. Maybe she'd be safe right now, but she doesn't care, because _this_--this is worth a thousand years of hell.

He pulls back to look at her, and his voice drops a few notches lower. "I couldn't have asked for a better partner."

Lisa's proud of herself for not crying, even once he's gone. Some of the older students have picked up on the tension, and they ask what's going on, but she can't tell them, because she doesn't know. She has an idea, but there's no use in getting everyone worked up for no reason. All they can do is get dressed for bed, because if anyone comes to check on them, it's best if no one knows they suspect anything. Maybe Harry's coming will be a surprise to everyone _but_ Dumbledore's Army.

She doesn't go up to her room, and Mandy stays on the couch next to her, taking up Michael's usual spot and occasionally tossing glances in Lisa's direction. They both hear Professor Flitwick's scurrying footsteps before he reaches the Tower, and they have half the House awakened before he can even explain it's needed. He manages an affectionate smile, patting their hands and exclaiming how proud is to have such clever girls in his House.

Glimpses are the best she gets of her boys in the Great Hall, because despite McGonagall trying to keep order, things are anything but peaceful. But it's good, because at least she knows they're still okay, and now she's focused--she's best when she's focused, so she holds tightly to it. Evacuation is frenzied. She's not a prefect, but she helps as best she can and manages to calm some of the little ones even when she's not especially calm herself. Despite her earlier decision to let them go without her, she's reconsidering, and when it comes her turn to go through the passage to the Hog's Head, Lisa instead returns to the Great Hall.

Time seems to either fly past her or go so slowly that she's barely sure she's still alive. Hogwarts is no longer hell, but utter chaos, with Death Eaters and students and adults she's never seen before moving in circles around one another. Spells fly, and there's damage to both the building and those in it, because it's not always possible to aim properly when one's running for her life, and everyone seems to be doing that now. Lisa does her best to avoid the duels, because she knows that's not her strength, and when it's evident that a small group is solely tending to the wounded, she joins them.

They all know when it's over, because there's a single moment of perfect silence and then suddenly the shouts she's heard all night turn to ones of celebration. Lisa doesn't realise she's stopped conjuring bandages, that she's staring at the door with trembling hands, until she feels a hand on her shoulder.

"I've got this," Mandy says softly, pulling the bits of cloth from Lisa's hands. "Go."

Lisa runs faster than she ever has before, hardly seeing the faces she passes because they aren't the ones she wants to see. She's searching, asking everyone she knows if they've seen her friends, but Michael and Terry find her first. When they throw their arms around her, she lets out a sob of relief, looking up automatically to that spot where Anthony would always be standing, watching them with an amused sort of detachment. He's not really the emotional sort, his tenderness earlier only invoked by the desperation of the moment, so of course he would stand back. But when she looks up, he's not there.

She almost doesn't see him, crumpled there on the ground with his leg bent in a strange direction, and when she does her whole body goes numb. He's dead, she doesn't know how she knows, but she just does, and it's as if the world has gone cold all within the span of two seconds. Lisa falls to her knees, and the other two don't follow her, because they're frozen somewhere behind her.

"Anthony...."

Lisa almost screams when he moves, and then she realises that he _has_ moved, and she does scream, except now it's for someone to come help, because she's too shocked to do it herself.

Days later, he takes the mickey something fierce for that scream, even though he doesn't really remember hearing it himself. He's just trying to turn the attention from the cracks his mates keep making about his hospital gown, but she doesn't give him the satisfaction of reacting. She's propped on the edge of his bed at St. Mungo's, and Terry's sitting in the chair next to them, holding one of her hands while her other fusses with Anthony's bandages. Lisa would let the Mediwitch do it, but Michael disappeared about fifteen minutes earlier, and she suspects he's trying to pull the woman, even though she's several years older than them.

He comes into the room soon after, though, and Lisa realises she had it all wrong. Michael wasn't just seducing Anthony's Mediwitch--he was also _bribing_ her.

Michael holds up a deck of Snap cards, which aren't allowed in the Spell Damage ward, for obvious reasons. "Strip Snap, yeah?" he says, flopping down at the end of the bed. "Goldstein's already at a disadvantage, of course, but that's nothing new, is it?"

Lisa's only answer is a grin.


End file.
